They don’t call it adventure cycling for no reason. James Hayden escapes attempted robbery while racing Silk Road Race

Silk Road Mountain Race leader James Hayden is considering whether to continue on with the race in the wake of being a victim of an attempted robbery by two men on horseback. Taking place in Kyrgyzstan, the Silk Road Mountain Race is a self-supported, fixed-route race of 1,700km mainly off-road.

The ultra-endurance athlete took to Twitter to disclose that he had managed to escape an attempted robbery while racing across the Kadzi-Saz area of Kyrgyzstan.

“While climbing the Kadzi-Saz canyon section of the route, James was stopped by two horse back riders with dogs. Without going into details, quickly James realised the situation was not friendly and things escalated fast into an attempted robbery.